Most shellfish are cooked by boiling them in a pot or baking them in an oven. These procedures usually take place indoors. Outdoors, shellfish are usually boiled. There are cooking units which can be purchased in which the shellfish are placed on a bed of seaweed and then covered with a layer of seaweed after which the unit is placed over a fire or on any other heating device. It is also known to build a bed of hot coals, place a layer of seaweed over the coals, put the shellfish on the seaweed, cover the shellfish with another layer of seaweed and then cover the entire area with a tarpaulin or similar material and then wait for the shellfish to be cooked by steam from the moisture in the seaweed.
Prior to the present invention there was no known portable steamer for shellfish similar to the very familiar portable grills used in cooking meats over a bed of hot charcoal briquets or by smoke heating.